The next morning, the three rode up to the massive tree that held the spell and dismounted. Marcos collected the reins of all three mounts and asked, "Should I start making camp?" He wasn't too keen on the idea of going into an elvish village. They might not be enemies right now, but old habits die hard.

The two friends exchanged looks. "It's fine," Rayla acquiesced. "I can only bring one person with me anyway. Although, you might want to do it a bit further from the front door." She smirked as the soldier blanched and quickly started looking for a different clearing.

"Alright, let's get going," Callum stated as he hoisted himself up into the branches, searching for the particular tree trunk they'd used last time. Rayla reached out a hand to help him up, but he was already straddling a branch and reaching for the next one. He really needs to be more careful, Rayla growled inwardly as she followed him up into the trees. With a look down to make sure she was following, the prince continued further up and further in. The trees were just as huge as he remembered, big enough to be used as roads. At least he'd been able to forgo the elf disguise this time. Those "horns" kept falling off.

He reached up for a thinner branch higher up. There was a really thick one right above it. If that smaller branch could take his weight for just a second, he could grab the next one and- Suddenly, his mind went fuzzy and he leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his current branch. Oh no, not another one, he lamented as the dizzy spell overtook him. "Callum!" came a shout from below. "Are you alright? I'll be there in a second, just hold on." Yeah, like I'm going to let go when my head is spinning, he grumbled to himself as she pulled up on his branch. "Are you alright," she asked and touched his shoulder.

He breathed in deeply as his head finally settled and sat back up with one hand still on the branch. "I'm fine, let's just keep going." He reached for the branch, but Rayla grabbed it first and easily snapped it. He gulped. "You can lead the way this time."

"Wait," she said, hunching over a bit so she could look up at him. "I know I haven't been treating you the same since we found out, but that's no excuse for you to be acting reckless like this." He turned his head away, but looked at her again when she placed her hand on top of where his rested. "Even if there's no baby, you are priceless. So look after yourself better?"

He looked straight into her eyes and saw her worry for him. Okay, maybe he was overdoing the whole I'm-not-a-delicate-maiden act. "I promise," he agreed. I guess I can tone it down, but if she starts treating me like glass again, I'm seriously going to wing up and just fly to the key point.

Relaxing out of her hunched posture, her shoulders fell back as Rayla let out a relieved sigh. "Oh, good. Because Ezran told me he'd unleash Opeli on me with a bunch of protocol books if you got hurt on this trip. I think dancing lessons were included." They both laughed and continued on, with Rayla leading the way through the branches. Finally, they reached the tree trunk they were looking for. "Do you remember the steps from last time?"

He grimaced. "Nope, not at all."

She sighed and put him into the starting position again. "When we get in," she instructed as she twirled and Callum followed, "I'm probably going to get mobbed, so you should just go straight through to Ethari's workshop. Do you remember where it is?"

"Yeah," he answered as they put their hands together in the middle of the circle, "But are you sure he'll be there? And what do you mean, mobbed?"

"Trust me," she scoffed as they watched the illusion disperse and the village appeared. "If he's not with the healer, he's in his workshop. And that's what I meant," she explained, pointing at a child who'd just spotted them.

With a shriek of delight, the boy screamed "Rayla's back!" and a horde of elven kids converged on the two friends.

"Are you back for good?"

"How many humans did you see this time?"

"Did you go to the castle?"

"Did you see the Speaker King?"

The questions came tumbling over each other and almost incomprehensible. Callum mouthed Speaker King? over the kid's heads.

Ezran, Rayla answered in the same fashion. Then she jerked her head towards one of the bigger trees with a door built into the side about thirty feet up. The prince nodded and peeled off from the group, headed towards the base of the stairs. When he was about halfway up, he looked back and saw Rayla still surrounded by the gaggle of kids. She smiled and he could tell from the sound of chatter that she was still answering questions. Such a stark contrast to the last time he'd been here with her made something within him warm.

But as he kept climbing, the warmth turned to knots. Would Ethari remember him? People obviously knew of Ezran, if the nickname was anything to go by, but did anyone here remember that he was a good guy? Was he about to walk into an attack? Should he have worn an elf disguise? His thoughts were jolted back to the present as he went to take another step up only for his foot to land on a flat surface. He was here.

With a deep breath, he knocked on the door and waited. A faint "coming!" came from inside. He took a step back from the door as it was opened from the inside. And there was Ethari, with a faint smile on his face that grew as he said "Callum, right? I didn't expect to see you again. Do you want to come in?" Ethari turned to the side so he wasn't blocking the door anymore and Callum got his first good look at the curve that he now knew housed two children.

It was a lot more pronounced this time than it had been two months ago, a definite mound on the elf's body. Then he realized he was staring and quickly snapped his eyes up to the elf's face. "Sure, yeah." He stepped through the door frame and stated, "I actually have some questions for you."

"About what," the elf inquired, shutting the door.

"Uh," Callum said as he reached up and scratched the back of his head. How to bring this up… he gestured to the elf's expanding middle. "That."

Basically, this happened because I needed the conversation between Callum and Rayla, I wanted to make it clear that Rayla is the coolest kid in the village, and I REALLY don't want to write the talk between Ethari and Callum even though at one point, I had it all plotted out in my head. Ah well, I'll get through it eventually. Next chapter, I promise.